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In the Spirit of Elijah, September 22
Luke 1:5-23
He will go out before God in the spirit and power of Elijah—to reconcile
fathers and children, and bring back the disobedient to the wisdom of
good men—and he will make a people fully ready for their Lord.
Luke 1:17
, Phillips.
God had called the son of Zacharias to a great work, the greatest ever com-
mitted to men.... John was to go forth as Jehovah’s messenger, to bring to men
the light of God. He must give a new direction to their thoughts. He must
impress them with the holiness of God’s requirements, and their need of His
perfect righteousness. Such a messenger must be holy. He must be a temple
for the indwelling Spirit of God. In order to fulfill his mission, he must have
a sound physical constitution, and mental and spiritual strength. Therefore it
would be necessary for him to control the appetites and passions. He must be
able so to control all his powers that he could stand among men as unmoved by
surrounding circumstances as the rocks and mountains of the wilderness.
In the time of John the Baptist, greed for riches, and the love of luxury and
display had become widespread. Sensuous pleasures, feasting and drinking, were
causing physical disease and degeneracy, benumbing the spiritual perceptions,
and lessening the sensibility to sin. John was to stand as a reformer. By his
abstemious life and plain dress he was to rebuke the excesses of his time. Hence
the directions given to the parents of John,—a lesson of temperance by an angel
from the throne of heaven....
In preparing the way for Christ’s first advent, he was a representative of those
who are to prepare a people for our Lord’s second coming. The world is given
to self-indulgence. Errors and fables abound. Satan’s snares for destroying are
multiplied. All who would perfect holiness in the fear of God must learn the
lessons of temperance and self-control. The appetites and passions must be held
in subjection to the higher powers of the mind. This self-discipline is essential
to that mental strength and spiritual insight which will enable us to understand
and to practice the sacred truths of God’s word. For this reason temperance finds
its place in the work of preparation for Christ’s second coming
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The Desire of Ages, 100, 101
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